Abstract: There's nothing finer than a new chipset to kick the summer off and this year it's the Intel Z77 Express. In this review PCSTATS will put the performance oriented Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H motherboard, which is built on Intel's shiny new Z77 Express chipset, through its paces with the exceptionally popular 32nm 2nd Gen. Intel Core i3/i5/i7 'Sandy Bridge' processor. 80% Rating:

BUG NOTICE: Be aware there are problems getting LSI RAID SAS/SATA cards like the LSI SAS3041E-R to work with this motherboard. Read about PCSTATS issues with the GA-Z77X-UD4H model here.

There's nothing finer than a new chipset to kick the summer off, this year it's the
Intel Z77 Express. In this review PCSTATS will put the performance
oriented Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H motherboard, which is built on Intel's shiny new Z77
Express chipset, through its paces with the exceptionally popular 32nm 2nd Gen.
Intel Core i3/i5/i7 'Sandy Bridge' processor. The main difference
between the Intel Z77 chipset and the previous Intel
Z68 is the addition of native USB 3.0.

Intel
staggered the release of its Z77 chipset and upcoming 22nm 3rd Gen. Intel Core
i3/i5/i7 'Ivy Bridge'
socket LGA1155 processors to let each technology stand on its own
two feet, but in reality the two are so complimentary you can't
have one without the other. Furthermore, the chipset and CPU are backwards compatible
with previous LGA1155 CPUs/motherboards so actual upgrading is a possibility for Intel
users!
While we can't say too much about the upcoming 'Ivy
Bridge' CPU in this article, we can tell you it brings DX11 integrated graphics to the table via the Intel HD2500/4000
IGP. In any event, either SNB or IVB CPU architecture is
well placed for mainstream and workstation PC systems in 2012/2013, so let's begin!

On the
videocard front you have a couple options with this board - integrated graphics
via the onboard HDMI/Display Port/DVI-D/Analog video outputs, or one or two
discrete graphics cards. In terms of videocards, the GA-Z77X-UD3H can handle a
single PCI Express Gen 3.0 x16 videocard
(x16 mode), a PCI Express 2.0 x16 videocard or a two-way pair of nVidia SLI /
AMD Crossfire cards (x8/x8 mode). Add LucidLogix VirtuMVP into the mix and
things get interesting, but more on that in a moment.

Whether
the graphics cards run on the PCIe 2.0 or 3.0 standard depends in part on the
CPU. If an Intel 'Sandy Bridge' CPU is installed it's the PCIe 2.0 standard, if
an 'Ivy Bridge' CPU is installed that changes to the PCIe 3.0 standard. The
Intel Z77 chipset supplies a further eight PCIe lanes for system devices.

Integrated graphics are underpowered for 3D gaming (see:
IGP-vs-IGP Benchmarks later in ths review) but well suited to regular
office-type desktop work with one or more monitors (see: IGP-PCMark Vantage
Benchmarks). The integrated graphics outputs on the Gigabyte
GA-Z77X-UD3H support HDMI at 1920x1200 pixels, DisplayPort
at resolutions up to 2560x1600, DVI-D at 1920x1200 and Analog VGA.
This board can handle dual
digital displays with Sandy Bridge CPUs or triple
displays for Ivy Bridge CPUs.

Intel's integrated graphics excel at media
transcoding via QuickSync technology, but most users prefer discrete videocards
over integrated graphics so a company called LucidLogix developed a software tool called Virtu that permits dynamic switching between
discrete and IGP graphics. Essentially, with Virtu you get the best of
graphics cards for 3D games and the power saving and hardware encoding benefits
of the IGP for desktop work. With the Intel Z77 chipset Lucid rolled out an
upgrade called VirtuMVP that has two new 3D tools;
HyperFormance which increases frame rates by eliminating
redundant rendering tasks and Virtual Vsync which reduces
screen tearing.

Further
peripheral expansion options include (3) PCI Express x1 slots a PCI Express x4
and legacy PCI slot. On the storage front, the GA-Z77X-UD3H serves up four 3Gb/s SATA II and two 6Gb/s
SATA III ports via the Intel Z77 chipset which support RAID 0/1/5/10 modes. One
of the SATA II ports is shared with the onboard mSATA socket so if you install an mSATA SSD and enable Intel Smart Response Technology you effectively
lose one SATA port. Configuring a PC with Intel SRT can be well worth it though. Take a moment to check out
PCSTATS test report on Intel SRT here and here.

mSATA port for SSD drives used
with Intel Smart Response Technology

At the
rear I/O the Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD3H has two 6Gb/s eSATA III ports care of a
Marvell 88SE9172 controller (RAID 0/1). These eSATA ports are handy for hooking
up external drive arrays.

Update 5/30/2012 - Using liquid Nitrogen cooling and a GIGABYTE Z77X-UD3H motherboard, the 7.03 GHz milestone was surpassed on Intel's 3rd generation Core i7 3770k processor by renowned overclocker HiCookie. "This is regarded as the current #1 highest Ivy Bridge CPU frequency and a world record according to respected global overclocking website HWBot.org." Full details on this are posted here.